High Intercommunity Variation in Adolescent Cigarette Smoking in a 10-Community Field Experiment

Abstract

The authors report levels of intercommunity variation in rates of cigarette smoking observed during the course of an evaluation of the influence of three mass media campaigns on the initi ation of adolescent cigarette smoking. Despite careful design and statistical adjustment for a set of 10 known sociodemographic and personality correlates of adolescent cigarette smoking, high intercommunity variation precluded the detection of media campaign effects in this study. The authors discuss the general implications of high intercommunity variation for studies using the individual as the unit of analysis when the unit of randomization is the community.